Geo: -15.3689, -94.1309Today the ship moored off Boca de Valeria which means mouth of the river Valeria and we were tendered over to a landing stage where loads of kids were waiting to greet us and hopefully "adopt" one of us for a dollar. Managed to successfully get past this lot and walk into the village. All the wooden houses are built on stilts because during the rainy season the plains are flooded, at which time everyone uses a canoe to get from place to place. We saw the school, church and local bar. Today was obviously a holiday because the ship was in. Some of the kids were dressed up as native Indians; others were holding birds, crickets, dead caimans all for a dollar photo or gift of some kind. We walked on to the ... read more

Geo: 11.18, -60.74Today we added another Scarborough to our collection. Apart from the original in the UK, we have been to one in Australia, South Africa and both North and South America. This Scarborough was in Tobago in the Caribbean. We had opted for a trek in the rain forest, which involved an early start because to get to the rainforest there was over an hour's drive in a somewhat bumpy minivan. However it did mean we got to see quite a bit of the island and guess what, it looks like all the others! In other words there was lots of lush greenery and pretty coastline generally spoilt by a hotchpotch of buildings, some painted in very garish colours, far too many cars and far too much litter. Once at the rain forest we were ... read more

Geo: 17.8981, -62.8511The pretty island of Saint Barthelemy, commonly known as St.Barts, is a French colony, which I didn't realize otherwise would have brought our Euros which is their local currency. The capital is Gustavia so called after the Swedish monarch King Gustaf from the time it was owned by the Swedes. The Swedes sold it back to the French in 1878. The ship moored off the coast as the island has only a small harbour and we had a 15 minute tender to get to the mainland. Like most Caribbean islands it is volcanic in origin but has some lovely beaches and the weather is hot and sunny with very little rain although the island is covered in green vegetation. There are plenty of duty free shops selling top of the range French goods. Not ... read more

Geo: 44.304, 9.20777Portofino is a tiny harbour which was once a fishing village and is now a harbour to wealthy people with yachts. Our ship moored off shore and we were tendered into the harbour. Seeing some steps we set off up the side of the cliff, coming across the Castle Brown, which was closed for a wedding reception but we did see the bride arriving. After walking along a narrow path we realised that it led nowhere except to the lighthouse and a Gelateria so we headed back into the town. On the way we popped into the Church of San Georgio, which his reputed to contain the relics of St.George. They were decorating it for another wedding as we arrived so it looked very pretty. Walking from here down in to the town there ... read more

Geo: 38.9129, 1.4423To get to Ibiza we had joined Silver Sea's Silver Spirit in Barcelona and sailed overnight. We joined the ship the previous day in time for lunch (of course- because the food is very good!). The Sail away party was at 6pm followed by drinks in the bar and then dinner. We met lots of people on this first night so good socialising.I was expecting Ibiza to be a bit like Torremolinos so didn't have high hopes. However the ship docked at Eivissa, an old port and marina and we were pleasantly surprised. From the dock we were bussed nearer to the town and then walked up the steep streets with many steps and passageways to the Dalt Vila or old town, which is very pretty and lined by little shops and nice looking ... read more